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The purpose of the study was to examine whether disability acceptance, hope, and resilience mediate the relationship between functional disability and life satisfaction in people with a lived experience of an infectious viral disease (i.e., polio and postpolio syndrome [PPS]). Participants consisted of 157 individuals diagnosed with polio or PPS who were recruited from two community support organizations in Taiwan. Participants completed self-report questionnaires. Data were analyzed with a simultaneous regression analysis. The tri-mediation model indicated that disability acceptance, hope, and resilience were associated with life satisfaction, accounting for a large effect size of 46% of the variance in the life satisfaction scores. The direct effect of functional disability on life satisfaction became insignificant when the mediators were controlled for in the model. Hope, disability acceptance, and resilience were found to fully explain the association between functional disability and life satisfaction. This study demonstrated that positive psychosocial factors might help to buffer the indirect and direct negative effects of functional disability on life satisfaction. Implications of these findings for future research and clinical practice when supporting individuals with a lived experience of an infectious viral disease, including COVID-19, are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This research uses the analytical hierarchy process (AHP) to analyze the key factors in evaluating and screening managers of the intellectual property rights speciality in Taiwan, related to industry. Industry can utilize the key factors of human resource management to provide self-growth and obtain competitive advantage opportunities for expanding the global market share. This research summarizes the evaluation and screening criteria of managers of the intellectual property rights speciality via a questionnaire of 29 managerial or technical staff from the IP rights-related industries, technology or management experts from the governmental departments related to IP rights industries, and scholars with backgrounds in IP rights related industries who had actually participated in IP rights managers speciality decisions or related tasks and who had employed AHP screening criteria. The findings include three key factors in evaluating and screening the managers’ speciality: evaluating IP rights competency, locating the core patent group competency, and calculating the chance of patents to be granted competency. This research can provide a reference for Taiwan’s related industry, when evaluating and screening managers of the IP rights speciality. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Rehabilitation counselor skills, knowledge, and training are significant predictors of quality of employment outcome. In the past decade, vocational rehabilitation (VR) and placement-related work settings in Taiwan have gone through a tremendous amount of change to reflect changing policies, types of disabilities, and global factors. VR professionals’ competencies also need to be addressed to keep pace with this transformation. The purpose of this study was to validate the Taiwanese version of the Systems Approach to Placement: Self-Assessment for Students and Counselors (SAP-SASC), designed to identify critical areas of knowledge, skills, and competencies possessed by practicing VR professionals. A total of 116 participants completed the instrument. The participants represent (a) rehabilitation counseling master’s students from National Changhua University of Education, National Kaohsiung Normal University, and National Taiwan Normal University and (b) job coaches, VR case managers, and other VR professionals from the Council of Labor Affairs in Taichung, Changhua, Nantou, and Taipei counties. Multi-trait scaling analysis revealed eight components of VR professionals’ competence (client, health, education, family, social, employer, placement, and funding). The respondents expressed the highest level of competence in providing job seeking and social skills training, addressing job modification needs, performing job analysis, and referring clients of community-based support services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Kidney Disease Quality of Life–36 Questionnaire (KDQOL-36™), modified by RAND, has been widely used for measurement of quality of life among hemodialysis or peritoneal dialysis patients. The purpose of this study was to refine and evaluate, by using confirmatory factor analysis, the structure of the KDQOL-36™ when the questionnaire was used to evaluate chronic kidney disease patients in Stages 1 to 5 in Taiwan. The psychometric properties of the translated version were determined among Mandarin-speaking adults (N = 428). Because the sample data did not fit the hypothetical model, one item was deleted and nine error terms were estimated. After improving the model fit, the modified model was presented as follows: χ2 = 1390.903, χ2/df = 2.711, p < .001, goodness-of-fit index = .833, adjusted goodness-of-fit index = .806, root mean square error of approximation = .063. According to the study results, the researchers suggest that because of content overlap, some items may be deducted from the KDQOL-36™. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]